Real Business Cycles in Emerging Countries?

We use more than one century of Argentine and Mexican data to estimate the structural parameters of a small-open-economy real-business-cycle model driven by nonstationary productivity shocks. We find that the RBC model does a poor job at explaining business cycles in emerging countries. We then estimate an augmented model that incorporates shocks to the country premium and financial frictions. We find that the estimated financial-friction model provides a remarkably good account of business cycles in emerging markets and, importantly, assigns a negligible role to nonstationary productivity shocks.

Ecological-transaction model approach of adolescents’ parental maltreatment and peer-bullying: the moderating role of bullying at the classroom

INTRODUCTION: The present study examined the ecological-transactional model delineated by Cicchetti and Lynch (1993) and the nature of the association between adolescents’ parental maltreatment and victimization and bullying at school. METHOD: Multivariate multilevel regression analyses were conducted on a sample of 2.852 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 from 25 secondary schools. Data was nested across 133 classrooms. Classrooms level variables and individual variables in relationship to parental maltreatment, behavioural disorders, sex, and bullying and victimization were included in the analysis. RESULTS: Results indicated that adolescents who reported suffering violence at home, showed more vulnerability to becoming victims of bullying at school, with the relationship being moderated by the level of bullying in the classroom. It was also examined the role of behavioural disorders and a relation between these factors was found amongst the bullies but not the victims. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: This study uses the systemic perspective of ecological-transactional model on child maltreatment to show the importance between the school and home microsystems in the perpetuation of victimization. The results imply that what children experience at home might cause emotional and behavioural differences in varying classroom climates at school. Therefore, understanding the interactions between systems’ transaction of socialisation mechanisms might contribute for effective anti-bullying programs

The coupling of plasma membrane calcium entry to calcium uptake by endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria

Producción CientíficaCross-talk between organelles and plasma membrane Ca2+ channels is essential for modulation of the cytosolic Ca2+ ([Ca2+]C) signals, but such modulation may differ among cells. In chromaffin cells Ca2+ entry through voltage-operated channels induces calcium release from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) that amplifies the signal. [Ca2+]C microdomains as high as 20–50 μM are sensed by subplasmalemmal mitochondria, which accumulate large amounts of Ca2+ through the mitochondrial Ca2+ uniporter (MCU). Mitochondria confine the high-Ca2+ microdomains (HCMDs) to beneath the plasma membrane,where exocytosis of secretory vesicles happens. Cell core [Ca2+]C is much smaller (1–2 μM). By acting as a Ca2+ sink, mitochondria stabilise theHCMDin space and time. In non-excitableHEK293 cells, activation of store-operated Ca2+ entry, triggered by ERCa2+ emptying, also generated subplasmalemmal HCMDs, but, in this case, most of the Ca2+ was taken up by the ER rather than bymitochondria. The smaller size of the [Ca2+]C peak in this case (about 2 μM)may contribute to this outcome, as the sarco-endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase has much higher Ca2+ affinity than MCU. It is also possible that the relative positioning of organelles, channels and effectors, as well as cytoskeleton and accessory proteins plays an important role.2015-09-3

Algorithmic Thinking Development with Generative Learning Objects Support

El desarrollo del pensamiento algorítmico es una de las dificultades que los estudiantes confrontan cuando aprenden a programar, utilizar la estructura de selección y de control correcta es un gran reto. En la investigación se utilizaron objetos de aprendizaje generativos para el desarrollo del pensamiento algorítmico en el curso de fundamentos de programación ofrecido a los estudiantes de nuevo ingreso de la carrera de ingeniería en sistemas computacionales. El enfoque metodológico de la investigación fue cuantitativo, con diseño cuasi-experimental por lo que se aplicó pretest y postest. Los resultados obtenidos permitieron determinar que el beneficio de los objetos de aprendizaje generativos fue relevante.Algorithmic thinking development is a difficulty that students have to confront when they learn programming the right use of selection and control structures is a big challenge. In this research were used generative learning objects for algorithmic thinking development in the programming foundations course that is offered to new students of computer systems career. Research methodological approach, was quantitative, quasi-experimental design and were applied pretest and posttest. The obtained results determined that the use of generative learning objects was relevant

Potential control of forest diseases by solutions of chitosan oligomers, propolis and nanosilver

Producción CientíficaThere is a growing necessity to replace chemical agents with ecofriendly materials, arising from the impact on the environment and/or human health, which calls for the design of new broad-spectrum fungicides. In this work, chitosan oligomers (COs), propolis (Ps) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) mixtures in solution were assessed to control the growth of different phytopathogenic fungi and oomycetes in vitro. Binary solutions of COs-Ps and COs-AgNPs evinced the highest antifungal effect against Fusarium circinatum and Diplodia pinea fungi, respectively, with a ca. 80% reduction in their mycelial growth. The COs solution by itself also proved to be greatly effective against Gremmeniella abietina, Cryphonectria parasitica and Heterobasidion annosum fungi, causing a reduction of 78%, 86% and 93% in their growth rate, respectively. Likewise, COs also attained a 100% growth inhibition on the oomycete Phytophthora cambivora. On the other hand, Ps inhibited totally the growth of Phytophthora ×alni and Phytophthora plurivora. The application of AgNPs reduced the mycelial growth of F. circinatum and D. pinea. However, the AgNPs in some binary and ternary mixtures had a counter-productive effect on the anti-fungal/oomycete activity. In spite of the fact that the anti-fungal/oomycete activity of the different treatments showed a dependence on the particular type of microorganism, these solutions based on natural compounds can be deemed as a promising tool for control of tree diseases.European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST Action FP1406 PINESTRENGTH)Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad - Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (project AGL2015-69370-R

Cambios de la mineralogía de arcillas en el tránsito Paleoceno/Eoceno del dominio Maláguide (Zonas Internas Béticas, S.E. España)

El tránsito Paleoceno/Eoceno del Dominio Maláguide (manto superior y no metamorfizado de la Zona Interna Bética, sectores occidentales de la Cadena Alpina), está caracterizado por una discontinuidad asociada a una laguna estratigráfica, que afecta al Ilerdiense. Durante el paso del Paleoceno al Eoceno se han detectado cambios en el tipo de depósitos condicionados por la naturaleza de las áreas fuentes. Los medios sedimentarios marinos evolucionan de una plataforma mixta a otra carbonatada y los medios continentales cambian de condiciones fluviales a lacustres. El registro mineralógico encontrado en los sedimentos marinos ha permitido deducir variaciones relativas del nivel del mar, que se relacionarían con procesos tectónicos compresivos regionales. También se ha deducido un cambio climático desde un clima estacionalmente seco a otro tropical húmedo. Este cambio climático favoreció, en el medio marino, el cambio de las condiciones de productividad que pasaron de eutróficas, durante el Paleoceno, a oligotróficas durante el Eoceno.The Paleocene/Eocene transition in the Malaguide Domain, upper and unmetamorphosed nappe of the Internal Betic Zone (Western Alpine Belt), is characterized by a stratigraphic unconformity with a stratigraphic gap affecting the Ilerdian. Some depositional changes, conditioned by the nature of the source areas, were detected during the Paleocene/Eocene transition. The sedimentary marine environment evolved from a mixed platform to a carbonated platform, whereas in the continental realm a change from fluvial to lacustrine conditions took place. The mineralogical record found in marine sediments allowed the observation of a variation in the relative sea level curve due to regional compressive tectonic processes and a transition from a seasonally dry climate to a humid tropical climate. This transition favoured, in the marine environment, the change from eutrophic conditions during the Paleocene to oligotrophic conditions during the Eocene

Nuevas formas de envejecer activamente: Calidad de Vida y Actividad Física desde una perspectiva Psicosocial

El objetivo principal de este monográfico se centra en ofrecer una visión holística y diversificada del envejecimiento activo en personas mayores que, de una u otra forma, se relacionan con la práctica de la actividad física. Los trabajos de investigación aquí recogidos suponen una representación variada de estudios de corte empírico aplicados sobres diferentes temáticas, tales como, la felicidad, el cine, la autoestima o las estrategias comunicativas, entre otras

From the manuscript to the screen: Implementing electronic editions of mediaeval handwritten material

This paper describes the electronic editing of the Middle English material housed in the Hunterian Collection at Glasgow University Library (GUL), a joint project undertaken by the universities of Málaga, Glasgow, Oviedo, Murcia and Jaén which pursues the compilation of an electronic corpus of mediaeval Fachprosa in the vernacular (http://hunter.filosofia.uma.es/manuscripts). The paper therefore addresses the concept of electronic editing as applied to The corpus of Late Middle English scientific prose with the following objectives: (a) to describe the editorial principles and the theoretical implications adopted; and (b) to present the digital layout and the tool implemented for data retrieval. A diplomatic approach is then proposed wherein the editorial intervention is kept to a minimum. Accordingly, features such as lineation, punctuation and emendations are every now and then accurately reproduced as by the scribe’s hand whilst abbreviations are yet expanded in italics. GUL MS Hunter 497, holding a 15th-century English version of Aemilius Macer’s De viribus herbarum, will be used as a sample demonstration (Calle-Martín – Miranda-García, forthcoming).The present research has been funded by the Autonomous Government of Andalusia (project P07-HUM–02609) and by the Spanish Ministry of Education (project FFI2008-02336)